The idea of reinventing NACA (National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics) is widely held. However there is no political will to do this. The Space Program is dying slowly but the President and Congress do not give a damn. Both political parties have been equally negligent. About every five years the federal government organizes these blue ribbon committees made up of distinguished politicians, corporate CEOs along with an astronaut or a military general officer to produce a report charting the future of American aerospace. Eventually these reports appear as a beautiful glossy document that details all the marvellous things that should be done in Space. The report then gets stacked on the same archive shelf to collect dust along with all the other beautiful glossy unread reports detailing the future of the Space Program.

Enjoy the year 2004. With the two Mars Exploration Rovers and Cassini, that will be a banner year for Space Exploration. After that it's all over. Roll the corpse into the grave and shovel in the dirt.

Gary